India: 2 police fired for not acting in rape case

Members of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union shout slogans during a protest against a gang rape of two teenage girls in Katra village, outside the Uttar Pradesh state house, in New Delhi, India, Friday, May 30, 2014. A top government official said the northern Uttar Pradesh state has sacked two police officers who failed to respond to a complaint by the father of the two teenage girls who went missing and were later found gang raped and killed. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
The Associated Press

Members of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union shout slogans during a protest against a gang rape of two teenage girls in Katra village, outside the Uttar Pradesh state house, in New Delhi, India, Friday, May 30, 2014. A top government official said the northern Uttar Pradesh state has sacked two police officers who failed to respond to a complaint by the father of the two teenage girls who went missing and were later found gang raped and killed. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Members of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union shout slogans as they participate in a protest against a gang rape of two teenage girls in Katra village, outside the Uttar Pradesh state house, in New Delhi, India, Friday, May 30, 2014. A top government official said the northern Uttar Pradesh state has sacked two police officers who failed to respond to a complaint by the father of the two teenage girls who went missing and were later found gang raped and killed. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)The Associated Press

Members of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union shout slogans as they participate in a protest against a gang rape of two teenage girls in Katra village, outside the Uttar Pradesh state house, in New Delhi, India, Friday, May 30, 2014. A top government official said the northern Uttar Pradesh state has sacked two police officers who failed to respond to a complaint by the father of the two teenage girls who went missing and were later found gang raped and killed. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

In this Wednesday, May 28, 2014 image taken from video, police stand amongst the crowd near where two teenage sisters were found hanging from a mango tree in the Katra village in Uttar Pradesh state, in northern India. Authorities have arrested three men, including two police officers, suspected of gang-raping and killing the teenagers before hanging their bodies from the tree, sparking renewed public outrage over sexual violence in the country. (AP Photo/NNIS via AP Video) INDIA OUTThe Associated Press

In this Wednesday, May 28, 2014 image taken from video, police stand amongst the crowd near where two teenage sisters were found hanging from a mango tree in the Katra village in Uttar Pradesh state, in northern India. Authorities have arrested three men, including two police officers, suspected of gang-raping and killing the teenagers before hanging their bodies from the tree, sparking renewed public outrage over sexual violence in the country. (AP Photo/NNIS via AP Video) INDIA OUT

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Facing relentless media attention and growing criticism for a series of rapes, state officials in north India have fired two police officers for failing to investigate the disappearance of two teenage cousins, who were gang-raped and later found hanging from a tree.

But in a country with a long history of tolerance for sexual violence, the firings Friday also came as the state's top official mocked journalists for asking about the attack.

"Aren't you safe? You're not facing any danger, are you?" Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said in Lucknow, the state capital. "Then why are you worried? What's it to you?"

The gang rape, with video of the girls' corpses hanging from a mango tree and swaying gently in a breeze, was the top story Friday on India's relentless 24-hour news stations. But in just the past few days, Uttar Pradesh has also seen the mother of a rape victim brutally attacked and a 17-year-old girl gang-raped by four men.

Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state, with nearly 200 million people.

Official statistics say about 25,000 rapes are committed every year in India, a nation of 1.2 billion people. But activists say that number is very low, since women are often pressed by family or police to stay quiet about sexual assaults.

Indian police and politicians, who for decades had done little about sexual violence, have faced growing public anger since the December 2012 gang-rape and murder of a young woman on a moving New Delhi bus, an attack that sparked national outrage over the treatment of women.

On Friday, the state's former chief minister lashed out at the ruling government.

"There is no law and order in the state," said Mayawati, who uses only one name. "It is the law of the jungle."

Hours later, the chief minister ordered that suspects in the attack be tried in special "fast track" courts, to get around India's notoriously slow judicial system.

The girls, who were 14 and 15, were raped in the tiny village of Katra, about 180 miles (300 kilometers) from Lucknow.

Police say they disappeared Tuesday night after going into fields near their home to relieve themselves, since their house has no toilet.

The father of one girl went to police that night to report them missing, but he said they refused to help.

When the bodies were discovered the next day, angry villagers silently protested the police inaction by refusing to allow the bodies to be cut down from the tree.

The villagers allowed authorities to take down the corpses after the first arrests were made Wednesday. Police arrested two police officers and two men from the village, and were searching for three more suspects.

The girls were Dalits, from the community once known as "untouchables" in India's ancient caste system. The fired policemen and the men accused in the attack are Yadavs, a low-caste community that dominates that part of Uttar Pradesh. The chief minister is from the same caste.